Industrial automation market to grow due to rising importance of automation

The global industrial automation market is emerging as an attractive investment space for companies worldwide. The use of robotics in industrial control is an already established trend. It has paved the path for the greater adoption of industrial automation and industrial control equipment. However, the growth of the industrial automation market could be beset with massive challenges in some parts of the world considering that the process entails the replacement of human labor with computers and machines.

The increasingly lower need for human intervention in several industrial processes is expected to jeopardize jobs and cause roadblocks in ambitious industrial automation projects. However, with many new studies evidencing that industrial automation could also create jobs in other ancillary sectors – such as in the installation of automation systems, in after-sales services, and in developing software for managing industrial automation – some of these concerns could be allayed.

Increasing number of factory units are moving along the path of automation and the presence of automation devices such as PCs, PLCs, and PACs will only become more and more common in the near future. While the trend of industrial automation stemmed from the developed countries in the west, it is now taking industrial units in Asia and Latin America by storm. The report analyzes how the global industrial automation market is increasingly swinging eastward and the factors at play therein. To do this, the report makes use of reputable and trusted analytical tools such as a SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces analysis.

Having fully emerged from the 2008 recession, several companies are now optimistic about making fresh investments in industrial automation. The growing demand for industrial automation technologies and systems is attributable mainly to the advantages that such systems provide. For instance, deploying factory automation can help reduce assembly time several times over, ultimately bringing down production costs. As automation brings human intervention down to a minimum, the chances of human error are reduced as well – this has prompted several industrial units to make use of automation systems. Greater flexibility is also easily possible through industrial automation, allowing factory managers to change production schedule briskly in response to seasonal changes.

With skilled labor becoming increasingly expensive in several developed countries, automation is being considered as the natural progression of the industrial and manufacturing sector.

The high cost of switching over to an automated factory and the concerns of government bodies about factories employing fewer humans could pose an obstacle for the growth of the global industrial automation market. At the same time, the maintenance costs of some of the more sophisticated industrial control systems could cause companies to reconsider making an investment in industrial automation.